Roads with a view

Here's some pics from my bike rides this past week. Yeah, it's a lot of pics...I always take way too many. I enjoy taking pics and sometimes I need the excuse to stop. Most of these pics are from Historic Buford or Lake Lanier and the surrounding area.

I figured it out...if I could just bike somewhere really boring or ugly I could bike faster but since there's so much to see, I have to stop and take pics. Yeah, we'll say that's the only reason I'm SOOOOOOOOOO slow. I used to be able to bike 100 miles in 8 hours but now I am reduced to 42 miles in 7 hours and 20 minutes. I stopped in a bike shop to have something looked at on Saturday and the tech went to lift my bike (with only the back panniers on and loaded so my knees can slowly get used to the extra weight) onto the stand said "Wow, I don't know how you can ride like this!" I felt a little justified for going so slowly. Sadly though, that's only half the load I'll be taking on the bike with me. I chose a really hilly route so I could get more of those in since we'll be doing two days of killer climbing. I've got my work cut out for me! I think the last day has between 3000' - 4000' climb and I only did 1500 or so. This tour is starting to become scary to me...but I will finish it or bust! Hopefullly the latter won't happen.

Toward the mall

My last two rides were on the same route but my ride today was longer than the first ride so I just included the pics together here since it was mostly the same scenes. This is going toward the mall on back roads.


Typical older home in these parts.


Apalossas are my favorites!


1 of 2 lions guarding the mansion in the next pic

There were about 10 mansions on a stretch of this road. They all have huge lawns. I'd take the lawn and leave the house.

My bike seat has been split open for about 5-6 years now. It started stabbing me with each pedal stroke so I fixed it.

Its permanent bandage.

Nice day for a ride

Nice day for a rideI rolled my bike out of the garage and was promptly stung by a bee. How rude! I hadn't ven provoked him! But I had a nice ride today. It was hot but the sun was behind some clouds so it wasn't as scorching as it could have been. The traffic was so light today that I kind of felt like I was in the middle of nowhere...very impressive for where I live. What a nice feeling! I felt pretty strong today. I never struggled as much and the seat didn't hurt as much either. Yeah!

Tomorrow I won't be biking but on Saturday I'll be doing a long ride. Hopefully I can get a few things done tomorrow evening...I have some shopping to do and some things to get ready for the tour...some waterproofing and bike maintenance.

Biking around

So now that I have been given the OK to join the Southern Utah tour, I have to kick my biking into high gear if I am to have a chance at finishing it under my own power. It was hot and muggy out today. It was in the 90's and it's a red alert smog days which means anyone with lung problems are supposed to stay inside. Well, that's pretty much all of August here and I can't do that even though my lungs were screaming at me to go back inside. I biked to a soccer complex near here. It's got a concession stand and about 12 soccer fields. It was super crowded. Today was the first day of the fall season so kids were getting assigned teams/coaches and getting thir new uniforms. I got water and sat down to watch some practice while the stomach cramp eased up. It did after about 10 minutes so I started back. There were some mean looking clouds out but they weren't too big so I knew I wouldn't get rained on...but it's coming back this week. Wednesday is supposed to be pretty bad. Looks like I get to test my rain gear again this week. Gotta make sure it's all good for the ride.


Horses in their pasture.


Another pasture.


Yet another pasture. That's why I like this route.

So the thing about roads here is that they have to cut down trees to build a road and there is no reason for the roads to be windy but there are very few straight roads here.

I love this house...it just says "home" to me. Don't you think so?

This is the stable across the street from our subdivision. I love that tree. You can't see it in this pic but the branches are shaped so neatly.

Fridge closet

This is one of the projects Adam has been working on. It isn't finished but it's as finished as it's going to get until some other projects get closer to completion (i.e. the fireplace getting removed and the laundry room). It looks quite large with our little fridge in it. It's designed for the larger fridges. He did a good job and it looks nice even if it isn't finished.

In the spot where the fridge used to be, we have the old cabinets from the laundry closet so I have a little more strage space until the pantry gets finished. We have a small pantry but the bottom half has been taken over with dog food because Tucker can't be trusted with food bags.

I was organizing some of the basement today and finally found my rice cooker. I've been looking for that thing. I've cooked rice a couple of times since moving in and I don't like cooking rice on the stovetop because it never comes out quite as good as it does in the cooker. So now I'm happy.

Rock Springs Park

On saturday, I went to Rock Springs Park for the first time. It's new since I left GA. It has a football field, a playground and this multiuse trail. It's about 2.5 miles long. I brought the bike and Jasmine and her trailer and we went exploring. It is a HILLY trail. It goes through the woods for the first part of it. There's a cable bridge over a creek. Then the trees open up into a field and the hills really show their colors. Wow, that was tough. Jasmine ran for 1.5 miles before I put her in the trailer so she could rest. It was super humid and hot out all morning. WHen I came to a big uphill, she came back out while I struggled to push the bike up. 3 months off the bike and I feel like a slug! Anyway, here are some pics so you can see some more of the landscape here. None of the pictures in the woods turned out. It was too dark in there for my camera.

Those are all lily pads and there were tons of yellow flowers on them but the camera didn't really pick them up.

Visit to Utah pics

I am way behind on my posts. Well, not a lot has happened since I moved here so not WAY behind but this post is really late anyway. Before moving out to GA and after visiting family in CA, I spent a couple of days in UT with my family. I got to meet Heather and Tom's newborn, Alieah. This is Heather's first baby and she a proud mommy. I got to hold Alieah first. :o) Grandma hoovered close by and finally asked if she was going to get a turn. I finally passed her to her grandma after about 30 minutes. She's so cute! And her eyes are really quite big. I went with Heather to the hospital so Jared could experiment on Alieah...poor girl. Just kidding, Jared was a good doctor until he had to unhook her from the machine. She wasn't a fan of her skin getting stretched out. On Saturday, Jared, Debbie and the boys came down for dinner and a visit. Itai is getting so big! Avi mostly looked the same but Itai was huge! What cute blue eyes! If you don't know this about me, I love eyes. He'll be walking next time I see him, I'm sure... and maybe speaking a few words. Avi gave me a hug And a kiss on the cheek. :o) The Mendoza's and Jon came too. So it was the whole family...and Maria and Mike dropped by in the later part of the evening to say hi. I hadn't seen them since leaving Utah. I played Hi Ho Cherrio with Elisa and Sabrina and was planning on playing Go for broke with them and Alex after dinner and dessert but I didn't because I got another turn holding Aileah. Sorry guys! The next morning I was dropped off at the airport so I could go back home. If I don't have a pic of you, I'm sorry. I either managed to miss getting one of you or all the pics I took of you turned out really blurry.

Grandma and her newest grandchild.


Proud Aunt T


Jon, Jared & Robin

Jon and Avi.

Itai getting ready to learn to walk.

Heather watching over Sabrina while she holds Alieah.

The proud new mommy.

Aunt Valerie watching Alieah sleep.

Elisa and Sabrina being silly.

Elisa with Alieah.

Jared convinced Heather to bring Alieah to the hospital so he could practice doing an EKG on an infant. Alieah didn't mind it until they started taking off the electrods (or whatever they were). I have a video of Jared explaining that everything looked good and he didn't know I was recording it. :o)

Peek-a-boo! She was asleep most of the time I held her so I didn't get any good pics of her wide awake.